Government cancels decision to award rail franchise for West Coast Main Line to FirstGroup

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

A new bidder has emerged for West Coast: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/09/bigjigs_bid/

Nice that someone at Dft took time to write a reply. Shows someone has a sense of humour.

[TonyK]

Nice that someone at Dft took time to write a reply. Shows someone has a sense of humour.

Agreed - nice to see a human touch in a department that hasn't had the best of years.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Indeed - from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

West Coast rail: MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post - a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London, depending on context) not 'deliberately misled'

Civil servants did not "deliberately" mislead ministers during a bidding process to run the West Coast mainline, the transport secretary has told MPs.

Patrick McLoughlin said lessons had been learned from mistakes made during the franchise competition. But he added the civil servants had not applied "proper workmanship" during the scrutiny process.

FirstGroup was awarded the contract for the 13-year rail franchise ahead of Virgin, but it was abandoned last year.

Investigations found a "damning failure" by staff at the Department for Transport (DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)) led to ministers - who had not been told about flaws in the bidding process - awarding the contract based on inaccurate reports.

The mistakes came to light after rival bidder Virgin Trains, which has run the West Coast Main Line since 1997, launched a legal challenge against the decision.

Mr McLoughlin faced questions on Monday from the House of Commons transport committee, chaired by Louise Ellman. When asked whether ministers had been "deliberately misled" by civil servants, Mr McLoughlin replied: "I don't think they were deliberately misled. The matter did not involve the proper workmanship you would expect from civil servants. Most of them thought they were acting in good faith, but they were not."

The transport secretary then praised the work done by his DfT staff, saying he had a team of "first-class civil servants doing a tough job".

Mr McLoughlin also revealed the cost of the failed process and future compensation payments for the bidders was approaching ^45m and could rise further.

He added that he expected to publish the Brown report - the second of two external investigations - within the next few days. The report is investigating what implications the West Coast debacle has for the future franchising programme.

Other franchising competitions, including for Essex Thameside, Great Western and Thameslink, are currently suspended.

Virgin will continue to run rail services along the West Coast mainline until November 2014.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Telegraph:

Justine Greening to face criticism over West Coat Main Line fiasco

Justine Greening, the Cabinet minister, will face criticism this week over her role in the collapse of the ^5billion West Coast Main Line rail franchise.

A report by the The Transport Select Committee published on Thursday will find fault with Miss Greening for her oversight of the deal, which fell apart in October at a cost to the taxpayer at least ^40million.

The MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post - a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London, depending on context) will also highlight failures by civil servants at the Department for Transport and suggest that awarding rail franchises should be handed to a new independent body staffed by experts.

There will also be criticism of the ^revolving door^ of ministers and civil servants at the department. The Coalition had three transport secretaries within 17 months.

Ministers announced that First Group won the London to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow franchise back in August last year. However, Virgin Trains, which had operated the line for 15 years challenged the decision.

Two months later the deal with First Group was withdrawn and the department later admitted to serious mistakes with the way the contract was awarded. Three civil servants were subsequently suspended.

Ms Greening, who had been tipped for high office, lost her job as transport secretary a month later in the Cabinet reshuffle. She was moved to the Department for International Development, but remains in the Cabinet.

An earlier report into the aborted rail franchise by Sam Laidlaw, the chief executive of the energy company Centrica, found the DFT^▸ (Department for Transport) had shown ^a lack of transparency, inadequate planning and preparation, as well as a complex and confusing organisational structure with weak quality assurance and insufficient governance oversight^.

Patrick McLoughlin, the current Transport Secretary, has said there had been ^unacceptable flaws^ and ^serious problems^ with the way the franchise had been awarded.